RWBY The First Rose of Summer
by rekr ori'kad
Summary: Everyone has a history. Before RWBY, before STRQ, This story is set at the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution. A simple soldier will find what many would consider his enemy, but all he can see is a child in need. Faunus!Summer
1. Chapter 1

A/N: so this is yet another Story of mine I don't know that I will do very much with it until I get some of my other story's a bit farther along. But it was an interesting concept that I wanted to get down. So the first thing to understand is that this story takes place at the end of the Faunus Rights War. This is a different war that the Great War that Qrow talks about in the world of Remnant. So obviously most of the characters involved will be OC's just because our beloved RWBY cast hasn't even been born yet. Another note I will make is that this fic is a Summer/possibly Ruby are faunus AU. So yeah enjoy!

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 _They're monsters_. That was all Sergeant Tanner Rose could think as he saw a Faunus huntsman jump off the tank that he had just destroyed. The Faunus themselves were just soldiers, like him, but the huntsmen and huntresses on either side were nothing short of terrifying. They would tear through defenses like they didn't exist and slaughter companies of men at a time. Normally that wouldn't be too much of an issue, let the huntsmen fight huntsmen and soldiers fight soldiers. But at this moment they had no huntsmen of which to speak and what the enemy had was destroying their well fortified position. Tanner looked out across the battlefield to see even more Faunus soldiers pour over the hill on the other side. _There is no way we can hold here_. He walked down the trench towards the center of their line. When he got there he found his company commander.

"Lieutenant Arc!" Tanner called out.

"Sergeant Rose, What can I do for you?" the Arc called back. Tanner came up beside the young lieutenant so that they could talk without being overheard.

"Sir, we can't hold this position, we need to fall back." Tanner told him.

"Sergeant we were ordered to hold this position," The Lt. answered, "unless I get a message from Colonel Winchester.."

"With all due respect, sir, screw Colonel Winchester!" Tanner interrupted, "That coward evacuated with the headquarters company as soon as the enemy arrived with huntsmen!"

"Sergeant!" the Arc began.

"No, Sir, if we stay here we will all be dead!" the Arc seemed to consider, until they both heard a roar coming from the other side of the hill.

"It's General Lagune's Tanks!" one of the soldiers called out recognizing the unit emblem on one of the tanks that came over the hill. Tanner also recognized the emblem, but decided that the Faunus riding in the gun turret signaled the tanks change of allegiance. Apparently Lieutenant Arc noticed this as well and it made up his mind.

"Not anymore, everyone fall back!" he ordered, "scatter into the forest, we will link back up at division headquarters! Go!" the men seemed to hesitate until the first shell flew overhead and detonated on one of their bunkers. There was no organized retreat as the men scrambled to grab whatever gear they had set down and took off into the snow covered forest with their winter cloaks fluttering in the wind. Meanwhile Arc took out his sword and shield, unlike the rest of the unit his wasn't standard issue. It was a family heirloom from the great war, and so it bore his family crest rather than Vale's crossed axes.

"Sir, what are you doing?" Tanner asked.

"Someone has to stay behind and cover our retreat, might as well be me, now go!" It took Tanner all of half a second to decide that was a bad idea. The Lieutenant was brave, no question, but he was young and naive. He wouldn't be able to hold of the approaching enemy for any given amount of time. Furthermore, Tanner knew that the Arc had aspirations of becoming a huntsman when they got back, and could actually do it, whereas he was simply a flunkie college student who joined Vale's army out of patriotism.

"No, Sir, you need to go with the men, I'll hold them off." Tanner grabbed the Lt. before he could head towards the enemy.

"Sergeant Rose, I made a promise to get all of you home," the Arc said, "an Arc always keeps his promises."

 _Why can't this ever be easy?_ Tanner thought to himself, "Sir, I'm not a hero, I'm not going to die here, but we are going to need huntsmen when this war is over, and that's you sir, so you get back to division headquarters and I'll meet you there!" after a few moments of debating with himself before finally nodding.

"You better keep your promise Rose, I'll see you there alive." the Arc said as he ran into the forest.

"You too sir." Tanner said before looking at what he had to work with. The trenches meant that there would only be a few paths that the tanks would be able to take without getting stuck, and the river nearby would be his best bet of escape. He went to the now abandoned supply shed and found what he would need, extra bullets, dust grenades, and timed explosives. He could hear them meticulously searching or destroying any potential ambush points on their way towards him. It made him want to find every recruiter that had told them they were going to fight dumb animals and smack them. The Faunus were neither dumb nor animals, and many a soldier had died learning that the hard way. He spent the next ten minutes hastily constructing as many traps and bombs as possible. He had just finished setting another timed explosive in a major walkway when he heard several footsteps behind him.

"Hands up Greenie!" the lead Faunus soldier called out. Tanner doubled over laughing, though the motion was to conceal him pulling a fire dust grenade from the pouch he had put it in earlier.

"GREENIE!" he said while still laughing, "Is that what you call us!" the Faunus soldiers looked at each other, probably sharing the thought that he was crazy.

 _Let them think what they want,_ Tanner thought, _in a few moments I'll get out of here._

"Yeah, well you wear green uniforms." the Faunus told him, it was true the Valean soldiers wore green fatigues under their white winter cloaks, even still Tanner laughed harder.

"what do you call the Mistralli? Brownie's?" he said, he had finally gotten the grenade free and was fiddling with the pin.

"Enough!" the lead Faunus shouted apparently getting flustered, "put your hands up or we'll shoot!" Tanner stopped laughing, _well now or never_.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" he asked quietly, apparently the Faunus hearing was as good as he had heard because the Faunus responded with a "yes!" Tanner took the grenade in one hand and the pin in the other and raised both hands above his head.

"Grenade!" one Faunus shouted and they all dove for cover, at the same time Tanner threw the grenade at them and dove into the nearby river. He swam downstream towards allied lines. When he got as far as he could with his head under water, which was much further than he had believed possible, he got out of the water. He did a quick equipment check, his cloak had a large tear in it now, he still had his rifle and sword and shielth, though he lost the grenades as well as much of his extra ammo.

"Darn, I could really have used that." Tanner mumbled to himself. He jerked his head up as he heard the first of his traps being detonated, whether it was because it had been triggered or the Faunus had brought in explosives experts to destroy them didn't matter, they would be slowed down either way. A breeze picked up through the forest and suddenly reminded Tanner why you didn't go swimming in full clothing in the dead of winter. "I need to find shelter."

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It was well into the evening when Tanner spotted a small half destroyed cabin hidden well within the forest. He wandered inside and found a fireplace with firewood already stacked beside it. After a quick search to ensure the cabin was empty, he started a fire. Once the fire was started he began to take off the white cloak and the green jacket of his uniform, as he was clearing layers he heard movement near him. A glimpse out the corner of his eyes showed a pair of canine ears, atop a humanoid form. As fast as he could, Tanner ripped his Valean steel sword from it's shielth and brought it around to strike the enemy soldier who had failed to sneak up on him. His blade passed inches over the top of the Faunus's ears. Tanner blinked, the Faunus was way to short. He looked down at the tiny wolf Faunus, to see that it was a child. Her pure silver eyes were staring wide with fear, at him. She couldn't have been more than four or five, if that.

' _What is a Faunus child doing here?'_ Tanner thought, _'I thought they were being forced into Menagerie, that's what this whole war was about.'_ He realised that several moments had passed and neither he nor the little girl had moved. The girl flinched as he returned the sword to it's shielth.

"Uh, are you cold?" Tanner asked after a moment, the girl hesitantly nodded, "well, um, fire's going, go ahead and take a seat." Tanner went back to the fire and the little girl sat next to him. Just to be safe he moved his rifle and sword to the other side, out of her reach.

"Um, what's your name?" he asked.

"Summer." was all the girl said after a moment.

"Where are your parents Summer?" Tanner asked. All Summer did was point towards the destroyed part of the cabin. It was Tanner's turn to wince as he looked at the burned out section of the small cabin, the damage was similar to what he had seen many times. Dust artillery shells, from which side was impossible to tell, but the damage was done just the same. What was almost more concerning was that the damage was nowhere near fresh.

"Summer is anyone taking care of you right now?" She shook her head. Tanner sucked in a breath what was he going to do? He couldn't just leave the girl out here in the middle of the forest, certainly not with it soon to become the new no-man's-land between the new frontlines. He couldn't take her to the faunus lines, that would be a good way to get himself killed. There wouldn't be many, if any, Mistrali that he would trust to take care of what they would consider an enemy kid. There was always Old Grandma Ruby's in Vale, that was an orphanage that he knew would take care of faunus kids, they had gotten a lot of political flak for it at the start of the war.

"Uh, M-Mister Human?" Summer stuttered out, jerking Tanner out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" he said while taking a look at her. She didn't look back at him but he could see tears forming in her eyes. "What's wrong?!" he asked suddenly very concerned.

"A-Are you going to put me in a cage?" she was crying now, not wailing, but the tears were certainly flowwing already.

"What?! No!" Tanner exclaimed quickly, "why would you think that?!" he grabbed his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his uniform, it was slightly damp still but would work to wipe up her tears.

"Daddy always said that was what the humans would do if they found us." Summer answered his question. Tanner opened his mouth to say that was a ridiculous idea, but thought about Colonel Winchester and some of the ideas he spouted. They were often drunk when he would start talking about what he believed the faunus deserved, but Tanner wasn't certain what was the alcohol talking or what was what the Colonel actually believed.

"I won't put you in a cage." he said after a moment, "and I'll make sure no one else does either okay?"

"Okay." Summer was down to just sniffles by now. Tanner had made up his mind about the girl. He was going to take her back to Vale with him. He would get her to Old Ruby Garnett and make sure that she would be well taken care of.

"Also, My name's not Mr. Human," he told Summer, "It's Rose, Tanner Rose, or Mr. Rose to you." Summer nodded and a few minutes later she was asleep leaned against Tanner. Tanner meanwhile was trying to figure out how he was going to get this little girl back to Vale.

"Boy, What did I get myself into?" he asked himself quietly.

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	2. Chapter 2

Tanner could feel something shaking him awake, but nobody was shouting and there were no explosions, therefore no danger. That was his thought process until he heard a small voice.

"Mr. Rose, wake up!" Summer whispered into his ear, "they're here!"

Everything came back to Tanner rather quickly, the battle, the retreat, the cabin, and the girl. He woke suddenly and checked to ensure that his rifle and sword were still safely tucked underneath him. He turned towards Summer and looked at her with his still bleary eyes.

"Who's here?" he asked, "the Faunus?" Summer shook her head and whispered once more.

"Monsters." Was all she said. Tanner frowned, he knew kids would often have nightmares about some kind of monster, the question was weather that was what Summer had seen or... His thought process was cut short as he heard a low growl from outside the little cabin. It was suddenly very clear to him what sort of monster Summer was referring to, Grimm. He jumped up and jacked a shell into the chamber of his rifle. No sooner had he done that when one of the Grimm stepped through the destroyed portion of the wall. Tanner quickly raised his rifle and fired. The Grimm apparently realised what was going on because it charged, causing Tanner's shot to go wide. He racked the bolt again, but the grimm was upon him while the bolt was still open. It slammed a large paw into Tanner, leaving him with a large gash on his arm, and sending him and his rifle to different areas of the cabin. Summer screamed and Tanner could only watch in horror as the massive beast rounded on the tiny girl. He saw the claws connect and knew that the little girl he had decided to take to safety was dead. Enraged, Tanner grabbed for the sword and shielth at his belt. The Grimm caught his movement and let out a roar as it turned on him. Tanner let out a battle cry of his own and caught the massive Grimm paw on his extended shield, with his sword hand he drove the Valean blade deep into the Grimm's fur. The Grimm roarred and tried to dislodge Tanner. It succeeded in that Tanner withdrew, but he brought the blade back around and sliced clean through the lupine Grimm's neck. As the Grimm fell Tanner spared a glance towards the body of the young girl he should have protected. She was moving, Tanner realised, there was a faint red glow over her body and she was moving to sit up against a wall. She was alive. No sooner had Tanner realised this when he heard another roar. He turned and saw another Grimm entering the small cabin. Quickly locating his rifle, Tanner found it and dove for it, catching the Grimm's attention as he did so. Tanner got his hand on the rifle and forced the bolt forward just as the Grimm came upon him. He turned and pointed the barrel at the open maw bearing down on him, and fired. Whatever armor the Grimm boasted, none of it could be found inside the creature. The Top half of the Grimm's skull was blown out. Tanner jacked in a new shell and listened for a moment. After hearing nothing but his own racing heartbeat and Summer's labored breaths, Tanner moved over to the little girl.

"Summer are you alright?"

"It hurts." the little girl said with a pained voice as she held her torso. Tanner quickly moved her tiny arms so that he could see the extent of the injury she received. There wasn't any blood, just some substantial bruising. More curious was the same faint red glow that surrounded the area. He recognized what it was of course, he had seen it in combat many times. The huntsmans shield, Aura or something like that. The question was, why did this child have it. Tanner checked for any other injuries. Summer was lucky, he found no broken bones or other injuries and when he checked her for a concussion she checked out fine. Tanner also saw that while he was still checking her, the bruises on her torso were starting to heal. The mysterious Aura she had was the only explanation Tanner could come up with.

"Hey, Summer." Tanner said to get her attention away from the bruises. She looked up at him with tearful eyes, though she wasn't fully crying. "You're going to be alright. Ok?" She nodded and wiped her eyes. _'Man this kid is tough'_ Tanner thought to himself. He wasn't sure how much Aura dulled pain, or even if it did at all, but on any normal kid they'd probably have passed out, or at the very least have been bawling their eyes out. Tanner looked around at the aftermath of the scuffle. There wasn't much in the cabin to begin so not much had broken. Tanner could see places where the floorboards had cracked under the weight of the Grimm. Curiously Tanner could also see droplets of blood scattered around the floor. _'Wait,'_ Tanner thought, _'Grimm don't bleed and I checked Summer…'_ Tanner quickly checked himself and found a spot on his arm where his uniform was torn and the area around it was quickly turning into a red cloth. Quickly rolling up the torn sleeve as well, as that of the formerly white undershirt, Tanner got a good look a rather deep and jagged gash along his arm. Reaching into the single inner pocket of his uniform jacket, Tanner pulled out the standard issue antiseptic powder every soldier carried for such injuries. After applying the powder to the gash Tanner moved to where his torn white cloak sat on the ground. He took the smaller part of the tear and cut it off the cloak. He then used it to wrap his arm tight in a bandage. Once that was done Tanner rolled his sleeves back down and donned what was left of his cloak. When he turned back towards Summer he saw that she was looking intently at him.

"Did you get hurt too?" she asked, the tone of her voice full of concern.

"A little, It's nothing bad." Tanner said. Summer looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry." She said. Tanner reached over and patted her head.

"Not your fault kid." Tanner said, "I'm a soldier we get hurt a lot." to his surprise the little girl grabbed onto his leg and held tightly while shaking with little sobs. "Hey, hey now, It's alright, everything is fine." Tanner said while inwardly thinking, _'I have no clue what I'm doing'_ eventually Tanner settled on gently patting the girl on the back until she finished crying. By the time she had calmed down Tanner could already see the sun beginning to crest the horizon. This also reminded him of the tight schedule he was on. Now that his unit's position had been taken by Faunus forces this forest would soon become a battlezone at best and enemy territory at worst. He and Summer needed to leave. While thinking about this, he looked at the little girl. She was wearing brown coveralls with a beige shirt and some well worn black boots, things that would contrast with the fresh white snow blanketing the forest outside. Tanner quickly looked through the cabin and found a mostly intact white curtain which he immediately began to work into a cloak that would be more than adequate for the young girl. Thankfully he had his sewing kit stuffed into one of his cargo pockets.

"Summer try this on." Tanner said as he handed the tiny cloak over to the Faunus girl, who had been watching him sew the thing together. As soon as Summer tried the cloak on Tanner knew he had misjudged the size, the hem of the cloak dragged on the floor. Despite this they were out of time and Tanner decided they needed to move before the sun got too high in the sky.

"Summer, I need to go back to my unit." As soon as Tanner said this the girl stopped moving and wrapped her arms around his legs.

"NO!" she said.

"Hey, hey! Calm down." Tanner said, "I'm not leaving you, okay?" Summer didn't let go but she loosened her grip, which was rather strong for a child her age, another thing Tanner found himself mentally blaming on her Aura. "I was going to ask if you would be willing to come with me?" At this point Summer let go and, rather dramatically, shook her head yes. "Alright we're going to be going through some dangerous places, so I need you to keep this hood up all the time, okay?" Summer nodded and pulled the cloak's hood up over her head. _'Well at least that fits'_ Tanner thought. And with that he took his young charge by the hand and the two began their trek back to the Allied Humanity lines.

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Tanner had two reasons for telling Summer to keep her hood up. The first was that once they reached human lines, he absolutely could not let anyone know she was a Faunus. Segregation was still prevalent in Vale, but at least people their were a little more open minded, Mistral was not. If she was found out in Mistral then the best scenario was that she would be kicked out and sent alone towards the Faunus lines. The worse case scenario was something Tanner didn't want to think about. However the second reason Tanner had told Summer to keep her hood up was because of the territory they were in. Summers hair was an extremely dark red shade. It would stand out against the white of the world around them to an extreme degree, and Tanner knew that this was a prime area for snipers, after all it's where he would set up. It's also where Tanner could make out faint dots on a ridgeline across the forest.

"Summer get down." Tanner said as he dove into the snow, allowing his tattered cloak to cover his body making him almost invisible in the snowy weather. Summer quickly looked around before slowly getting into the snow next to him. _'Alright we'll need to work on that.'_ Tanner thought. He quickly thought of how he would explain the situation to the young girl. There was no way he could tell her that he was about to kill members of her race right? Right.

"Summer we're going to play a little game, okay?" inquisitive silver eyes peered out at him from under the white hood. "Here's the rules, one you can't stand up, okay? You need to lie in the snow for the whole game." Summer nodded, she seemed fully invested in the idea of a game. "When I pat your head you need to crawl after me, remember no standing up." Summer nodded again, "okay good, third when I say 'cover' you have to cover your ears."

"All of them?" Summer asked.

' _Right Faunus can have two sets of ears.'_ Tanner thought, "yeah cover all your ears, I'm going to make a lot of noise when I say that okay?" Summer nodded again, "and finally you can't look up until I tell you okay?"

"Why?" Summer asked.

"It's just part of the game, but it's important, okay?" Tanner tried to deflect her question. Summer considered a moment before nodding. "Okay, lets go." Tanner then patted her on the head and they moved to behind an outcropping of snow. Once they were behind the outcropping Tanner told Summer to cover and then he set up his shot. He could see little flashes that indicated one of the Faunus on the ridgeline had a scope of some kind. That would be his first target. The greatest enemy to any sniper was another sniper, and most snipers used scopes to help make their shots. Most, not all. Tanner racked the bolt on his rifle and lined up the ironsights onto the target. He watched the wind shift the trees and pick up snow along the path of his shot and adjusted his aim accordingly. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze. The gunshot echoed off of the nearby hills and Summer jerked slightly next to him. _'So even covering her ears won't block out the sound entirely, huh?'_ Tanner thought, _'oh well nothing I can do about that now.'_ Tanner racked the bolt on his rifle again. The other dot had begun running back up the ridgeline probably trying to get back to wherever his unit was. Tanner adjusted to lead the running figure. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze. The second dot stopped moving. Had Tanner been a few years younger and fresh to the war he might have stood up and moved away, but he was not. If he had learned one thing during the war it was this, Faunus did not hunt alone. So instead he tapped Summer on the head and they began to crawl to another area. When they reached their new hiding spot, a fallen tree, Tanner once again told Summer to 'cover' and racked the bolt on his rifle once more. Sure enough more dots had crested the ridgeline. Tanner counted another twelve Faunus coming to find their fallen comrades. Tanner mentally counted his remaining rounds. Two for the Grimm, two for the sniper team, one round in the chamber. The loss of his bandoliers to the river had cost most of his ammo, leaving him with twenty in his pockets and the round in the chamber. If he could have avoided this fight he would, but there was no way he could crawl all the way out of this forest with Summer. Tanner sighed and lined up his next shot, he picked out the Faunus standing the farthest back. It was the tendency of officers to stand where they could see their troops all at once, if he could take out the enemy's leadership they would be thrown into chaos, chaos made sniping easy. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze. Tanner's target fell down and a half second later all the rest fell down too.

' _so they finally figured out their dealing with a sniper, huh?'_ Tanner thought, _'slow, way too slow guys.'_ Tanner tapped Summer and the two began to crawl to another cover. Once again Tanner set up, this time slipping five fresh rounds into the magazine of his Valean infantry rifle. While he was doing this though he spotted a dry river bed nearby. There was just enough trees and bushes around it to make it the perfect escape plath, but first he needed to give the Faunus soldiers something to think about. Tanner quickly sighted in on an enemy soldier who hadn't quite gotten sufficient cover. Adjust for wind. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze. Then Tanner waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually he felt a tug on his trousers besides him. He looked at the young Faunus girl trying to get his attention.

"Are we still playing?" she asked quietly.

"Yup, still playing keep your ears covered." Tanner said with a forced smile before turning his attention back to his foe. There! Tanner spotted one of the Faunus helmets poke over their cover. He quickly sighted in but paused. Something wasn't right. Tanner decided to wait for a second. The helmet didn't move, didn't dive back into cover nor did the whole soldier stand up.

' _It's a trap.'_ Tanner thought, remembering times he and his men had used a similar trick in the trenches, one soldier would put his helmet on a stick and hold it just over their cover while another sniper would locate the enemy sniper and eliminate them. Clued in, Tanner wasn't going to fall for that trick and set about finding the Faunus sniper. It was a difficult undertaking until he caught a glint of light reflecting off of something. Tanner sighted in on the glint. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze. Three things happened in that moment, the first Tanner fired, the second was the helmet disappeared behind cover again, and the third was an enemy shot impacted with a tree almost thirty meters away from Tanner. Seeing no more movement for a bit Tanner tapped Summer on the head again and the two began to crawl to the dry river bed. Once there Tanner turned to Summer.

"Good job, the games over you did great." Tanner said.

"I won?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, but you still need to keep quiet, okay?" Tanner said quickly. The next part of his escape plan had them putting as much distance between themselves and the enemy squad as fast as possible, but he wasn't sure how far they could get with Summer being as young as she was, unless… "Summer do you want a piggyback ride?" Summer nodded enthusiastically, "alright hop on." Tanner said as he got down to where Summer could climb on, which she did rather quickly. Getting back up Tanner was shocked at just how light the kid was, he was pretty sure his rucksack weighed more than she did. Tanner grabbed his rifle and took off running as fast as he could while staying low enough that the enemy squad wouldn't see them falling back.

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 **A/N ahhh, finally got to work on this one. I know it didn't have as much of a reception as some of my other stories but this story is one I'm kinda enthusiastic about writing. So yeah, hope everyone enjoys this one. Also if anybody has some ideas for things they'd like to see with little Summer growing up, let me know. I can't say if I'll use it or not but I could use a few more ideas of things so this whole story won't be gigantic timeskips.**


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